Can you tell me why those bubbly-pop noises were even invented to go along with some notifications on cell phones and computers?

I don’t like them. They make me feel like I’m 5 years old. WWF has bubbly-pop noises every time I move a tile, so I keep my computer on mute most of the time, except when watching a specific video.

One time I was in a waiting room, and some lady was playing something, or maybe texting, and her phone kept going “bubbly-pop! bubbly-pop!” every few seconds for the next 15 minutes. I found it extremely annoying, as I was trying to read a National Geographic article on the evolution of languages.

What was the reasoning behind creating such pre-school sounds for notifications, etc.?

7 Answers

Don’t have an iPhone but yea, I hate that fucking obnoxious sound. The thing that confuses me is that it is so easy to change these sounds, you’d think more people would want a notification sound that was more unique to their personality instead of “hmm was that my phone or yours?” but even still with mine, if I’m having a text conversation I put my phone on vibrate because well it gets fucking annoying. Maybe I’m just courteous to those around me….

It’s not the ring tone I’m referring to. I think most people customize their ring tone. It’s the other notifications, like when they’re playing games. They sound like five-year-olds watching a video or something. I wonder if they have the volume on so that people around them can hear what they’re doing and think they’re saying, “Wow! That person is technologically savvy!”